As the strife in West Kingston increases and the death toll rises, there is only one bottomline… Bruce Golding must go. The Jamaica Labour Party has to reject him or die.
No reasonable person, party psychophant or not, should see any wisdom or justice in Bruce Golding remaining as part of the country’s political spectrum (except as a stain).
It would be more than fair to say he has muddled this entire episode from the beginning, and the least he can be charged with is negligence and bad judgement. It is much more likely though, that there is far more to legally charge him with, should the country ever get to the bottom of this.
I read with a lot of amazement and dismay, the things that are happening and the reaction to them. I read with interest about the death of Keith Clarke, a 63 yr old businessman, who was shot to death by the police who had gone to his Kirkland Heights house in search of Dudus. Clarke was shot dead apparently after engaging more than a busload of police/military in a 2 hour ‘fierce firefight’.
The reactions of course are across the board. Because of Clarke’s status in society, many ‘decent’ citizens hold that it must be murder… most likely not the same conclusions they would jump to if the address was far south.
Others automatically think that Clarke was mixed up in the issue, fired on the police, and reaped his just rewards. But just a minute.
Busloads of security forces with high-powered weapons versus a 63year old man with a ‘pi-pi’, spent 2 hours at about 3am, trading gunshots. Hmmm. And 4 JDF soldiers were shot? Hmmm.
Does anyone stop to think the amount of ammunition Clarke had to have and expend in that time, and the level of marksmanship needed to hold off so many professional soldiers and police, and injure 4 soldiers? While his family was in the house?
Sorry but someone needs to join the fiction writers guild.
Then there is the rage being expressed by those who demand oversight over the police/military operations in Tivoli, especially when bodies began to multiply far beyond the ratio of gun finds. Rightly they argue, the rights of residents of Tivoli must be honoured.
Not so, argue an opposite set of bloodthirsty lynch mob, screaming for the spilt blood of every man, woman and child who had ever called Tivoli home.
What have we come to?
How the People’s National Party’s leaders must be chuckling, thinking back about the reaction to their raid on Tivoli some years ago.
Then there is Eddie Seaga calling for Bruce’s resignation, sounding so very much like a moral champion as his friends are busy rewriting his history, wanting us to believe that it was only after he left Tivoli, that there was such a massive breakdown in civility.
And where is Golding in all this? Well, certainly not in Tivoli or West Kingston as no one wants to see his face there. I’m sure he is bunkered down, trying to wait out the fusillade of ‘calls for his resignations’ he deserves to be getting. I hope he has enough sandbags.
There are calls for Dudus to give himself up and wonder really, who is the fool here. Dudus, if he intends to give up, cannot be letting anybody know that he is monitoring the press. Why should he? I wouldn’t be surprised if when he decides to do so, his excuse will be that he was on a yoga retreat in St Ann.
Do I think he will give himself up? Not sure, but I still won’t rule it out as a possibility. Of course he will only do so if certain cards are in his hands. He is too deep to get out now with no cards to play.
My argument that Golding would make a deal with the US authorities on Dudus’ behalf, so as to keep his silence, was and still is the only viable game in town. However, Dudus, like most of us, now have little trust in Golding. Either that or Golding called Dudus’ bluff, or found a way to neutralize him.
It certainly isn’t because Golding had a change of heart about defending the principle of extradition. That principle if anyone knows Golding, never existed.
But even allowing that principle existed in Golding, it certainly shows a whole lot of poor judgement. Certainly, the presence of sandbags in Tivoli, tells that the ‘badmen’ were certainly more prepared for what is happening than the government machinery.
Certainly if the government was preparing for the inevitable onslaught, they would have prepared their ‘spies’ inside Tivoli to be on the lookout. And don’t tell me that Tivoli is a fortress. Given 9 months, anyone can penetrate such a community.
And with better preparation, we would not be having headlines that posit Jamaica as banana republic, a failed state… which we aren’t. So many people wouldn’t have to die, and the repercussions held to a minimum.
But Golding’s action over that time was simple self-interest, protecting himself, nothing more. Now, I believe he expects to brazen it out. Not sure he can do that. Not sure the JLP will allow that and not sure the people of Jamaica will stand for that… though I see some already revising his history, positioning him as a man of courage determined to wipe the scourge of crime from the face of Jamaica. In America, they call it spin.
Actually, the most important import into Jamaica over the next few months will be ink and erasers.
If Golding remains in power, that’s more than a sad indictment on Jamaica, and as granny used to say, ‘Dawg gwine nyam wi supper’.
***
Certainly, the comment that least impressed me was the Gleaner editorial of the 28th, which is astoundingly naïve to say the least.
Just some thoughts that came to mind. “… heavy and destructive blow that has been dealt to Mr Cokes organisation…”. Really? Does the Gleaner have proof that most of those 73 bodies belonged to Cokes organisation, or are you saying because they live in Tivoli they automatically belong to his organisation?
What about Keith Clarke? Is that one of the destructive blows? Is that positive enough for you?
Vacillation? Is that the new spin word for Golding’s abject negligence or gross criminality? Nine months, and all the Gleaner can accuse the prime minister of is ‘vacillation’?
“The Jamaican state… regained the advantage…”. Again that is a presumption that those killed were indeed gunmen. Look at the paucity of guns found. You laughed at the then state when they found so few guns in Tivoli years ago.
Over 70 people dead, and no one knows clearly how they died, and many suspect state terrorism, but the Gleaner is quick to announce that they were gangsters and their deaths positive?
The second potential positive according to the Gleaner is the “… possibility for concentrating Mr Golding’s mind and giving him clarity about his future. He must put west Kingston behind him?”.
Is the Gleaner daring to advocate that Golding should stay in power… someone who is either extremely morally corrupt or an incredible bungler? Really! Is this truly what they want? A leader who over nine months, jeopardizes his nation, lies, bungles everything and leaves a smear of blood over Jamaica’s reputation?
And all the Gleaner is saying is that Golding is finished in Tivoli? Incredible.
And then the Gleaner turns around and blame Eddie Seaga, who truthfully deserves a lot of blame… but. But did the Gleaner in any editorial ask Seaga to broker anything regarding this issue? Did they call on his reputation in the community? If Seaga had come out and spoken on the extradition issue, wouldn’t he have been criticized as overbearing and out of touch?
Wow, the Gleaner has become the worst of the facilitators and enablers of a very corrupt government. How far has the whore on North Street fallen?
